On a dreary Tuesday afternoon, Dematrius Davis and A.J. Carter walked through the coaches’ office in the North Shore High School field house.

Carter, a senior, was in a sweatshirt and gym shorts, a camouflage ball cap sitting on his head underneath his hoodie. Davis, fresh from his athletics period, was in shorts and T-shirt.

In the corner of the large room full of desks for all the assistant football coaches, a TCU coach on a recruiting trip was chatting with a player. As Davis and Carter walked by, the recruiter paused and grinned.

“Are you two the ones with that connection?” he said, unable to hide the excitement in his voice. • “Yes sir,” Davis said.

“Congrats. That was awesome,” said the coach who went back to his recruiting pitch.

Nearly a month after the Hail Mary pass from Davis to Carter to beat Duncanville for the Class 6A Division I championship, the question is commonplace for the two.

Every day, both are stopped somewhere. At school. At Raising Cane’s. At H-E-B.

Everywhere they go, they are recognized.

“It never gets old,” Carter said. “I don’t think it will.”

78 yards and 57 seconds to a title

North Shore had led for most of that Dec. 22 game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, but Duncanville’s Ja’Quinden Jackson scored on a 5-yard run to put the Panthers ahead by one point. The two-point conversion failed, leaving it at 36-35 with 1:02 remaining.

Shadrach Banks returned the ensuing kickoff to the North Shore 22 from where the Mustangs would start their final drive with 57 seconds left.

“We were working for a field goal, honestly,” North Shore coach John Kay said.

Davis rushed for six yards on the first two plays. With a third-and-4 from the Mustangs’ 28, he threw a 6-yard screen pass to Zach Evans. First down.

Davis hit Chance Pillar for 18 yards on the next play, putting North Shore at the Duncanville 48.

Close to field-goal range, Davis completed two more passes — one for 6 yards and one for 7 to Banks to get the Mustangs to the Panthers’ 35with 11 seconds to play.

On the next play, Davis failed to find a receiver and took eight seconds off the clock looking for one. He threw an incomplete pass. The Mustangs were called for holding, bringing the ball back to the 45.

With three seconds left, Kay called a timeout.

There was talk to go with some trickery — a play called “Boise” that gave the players a little more freedom on the field. But they hadn’t done many reps of it, so at the last second, they decided to just go for the Hail Mary.

Davis identified a three-man rush right away and was able to move in the pocket. His body language was smooth as he drew the Duncanville free safety away from two receivers in the end zone.

Davis scrambled back past midfield before noticing a hole and rushing forward. Time had expired when he released the ball from the 45 and dropped a dime into the end zone where Carter and Banks were waiting.

Carter went up and got his hands on the ball. Banks put his arms around Carter to help make sure his teammate held onto the ball.

Davis immediately took off and ran to the end zone to celebrate with his teammates.

They’d done it.

They’d won state.

‘People everywhere had seen this’

The moments after are a bit of a blur for Kay and his players. The days that followed were full of text messages, phone calls, interview requests and nonstop social media notifications.

North Shore’s Hail Mary was everywhere. The Mustangs were named national champions by MaxPreps.

“It was on Bleacher Report and ESPN,” Davis said. “People were sending me links to everything.”

When Kay got to his cell phone following the game, he had 137 text messages. They would continue coming the whole ride home.

The players’ social media messages were filling up.

Galena Park North Shore wide receiver A.J. Carter (4), bottom, is mobbed by teammates after making the game winning touchdown catch against Duncanville during the fourth quarter of the 6A Division 1 State Championship at AT&T Stadium Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018, in Arlington, Texas. Galena Park North Shore won 41-36.

Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

“I had all these DM requests,” Carter said. “It was crazy. At one point, my phone glitched because there was so much.”

They made it back to Houston at 5 a.m. on Dec. 23 and everyone went their separate ways for the holidays.

Kay headed to Austin to see his parents. At the Buc-ee’s in Katy, he had nine or 10 people come up to him to congratulate him.

“It was really nice, really genuine,” he said. “People everywhere had seen this and they were excited for us.”

Kay said he has seen the play at least 100 times since it happened last month. From watching the game film, seeing clips on television and social media and having them sent to him via text or email, he’s seen it continually.

“I’m not tired of it, I’ll tell you that,” he said.

Kay has been coaching 23 years and this was the second successful Hail Mary he has seen. The first was in 2014 when Channelview — led by Jalen Hurts, the former Alabama and new Oklahoma quarterback — beat North Shore on a Hail Mary.

When it was time for his team to try it in Arlington, he actually felt good about it.

“I knew we were giving ourselves the best chance we had with three seconds to play,” Kay said.

His confidence stemmed from knowing his players’ athletic abilities, but also their backgrounds.

“They don’t live a life of entitlement,” Kay said. “Things don’t come easy to them. So when we get into a situation where our backs are against the wall ... those kids have been in that position before in their lives. So to pull off that play, it’s not a complete surprise even with the low probability that it would be successful.”

Quarterback awed by play’s impact

Davis has watched the play about 100 times. When it was happening, he felt confident.

He normally does. He’s only a sophomore, but Davis is about as cool and collected as they come. He doesn’t get rattled easily.

“I felt like we could do it,” Davis said. “I felt like I just needed to get A.J. the chance to catch the ball.”

Davis felt instant relief after the game. He was exhausted on the ride home. He was on his phone for about an hour then slept the rest of the way. If he hadn’t made that pass, he would have been devastated.

“We worked so hard, so that would have killed me,” he said.

Galena Park North Shore quarterback Dematrius Davis (9) throws the ball against Duncanville during the fourth quarter of the 6A Division 1 State Championship at AT&T Stadium Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018, in Arlington, Texas. Galena Park North Shore won 41-36.

Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Since that night, he has had four more scholarship offers. LSU, Temple, William and Mary and Texas State are on his list now along with Baylor, Southern Mississippi and Memphis. He’s not getting ahead of himself on that front, though.

Instead, he’s thinking about next season and a state repeat.

“I don’t know if it’s hit me yet that we were a part of history,” Davis said. “It all happened so fast.”

It has hit him that people loved watching the play.

“They come up to me everywhere,” he said. “Even when I went to visit my grandmother in Louisiana.”

When Davis returned to school after the break last week, he was bombarded.

“The principal even gave me a hug,” he said. “And people were stopping us in the hallways. They still tell us ‘Thank you’ and ‘Congrats’ all the time.”

Davis knew what winning state meant to himself and his teammates, but he didn’t realize the reach it would have outside of them.

“Everyone at this school, in this community, they are really excited,” he said. “It hasn’t really died down. I hope we can do it again now that I see how happy it makes everyone.”

‘No way I was letting go’

Carter hasn’t stopped smiling since that night, which coincidentally was his mother Keisha’s birthday.

“It was a really good birthday present for her,” he said.

He still loves watching the play and has started to understand its place in history.

“I knew I was going to catch it,” Carter said. “I tracked the ball when he threw it, and I just knew I had it.”

When the ball hit his hands, he grasped it tight.

Galena Park North Shore quarterback Dematrius Davis (9) throw the ball into the end zone, but the play was called back due to a holding call against North Shore during the fourth quarter of the 6A Division 1 State Championship at AT&T Stadium Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018, in Arlington, Texas. Galena Park North Shore won 41-36.

Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

“There was no way I was letting go,” he said.

Carter knows the replay will air every year at state, and it will be talked about and analyzed for years to come.

“It’s amazing to be a part of that,” he said.

Carter has three scholarship offers since state — Louisiana-Monroe, Utah State and Southern Mississippi.

“It’s been pretty crazy,” he said.

For the first week after the play, Carter couldn’t go anywhere without someone stopping him to talk. He graciously thanked every one of them and relived the moment over and over.

His Instagram following has nearly quadrupled since that night, and he still gets message requests from strangers who have seen the play and want to talk to him about it.

He and his teammates were on several local television broadcasts when they returned and the chatter about the Hail Mary hasn’t subsided.

He doesn’t mind the attention, though. Especially from a certain group.

“A lot of younger kids tell me they look up to me now,” Carter said. “I try to talk to them a lot. Tell them how important school and grades are. Since they are listening to me, I feel like I should tell them what’s important. It’s really cool.”

A lasting moment

Carter, Davis and Kay have a lot going on. Carter will graduate in May and has to decide where he will go to college. He has a handful of offers and maybe more coming.

Davis is prepping for his junior year. He’s back in football already and working with his teammates who are coming back next season.

Kay has his hands full with coaches visiting and recruiting while he is trying to get his team ready for 2019. After a state championship, he knows the pressure is on.

The excitement from the Hail Mary hasn’t died down and none of them know when it will.

“It’s pretty great to watch,” Kay said. “We were all football fans before we were coaches and players, so I think it’s easy to see it and appreciate how great that moment was.

Galena Park North Shore wide receiver A.J. Carter (4) celebrates after being mobbed by teammates in the end zone following his game-winning touchdown catch against Duncanville during the fourth quarter of the 6A Division 1 State Championship at AT&T Stadium Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018, in Arlington, Texas. Galena Park North Shore won 41-36.

Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

“It will go down in history, and to be a part of that is something truly special for these players and this team.”

Jenny Dial Creech, a native of San Antonio and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, started at the Houston Chronicle in 2005 as a high school sports reporter. She has since covered an array of beats and served as an assistant sports editor and senior editor of Texas Sports Nation. Creech is the president of the Association for Women in Sports Media and was awarded the 2015 APSE Diversity Fellowship. In addition to her role at the Houston Chronicle, Creech also works with several high school and college journalists at Columbia University journalism conferences and workshops.